NHK develops flexible OLED display

NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, is currently making leaps and advances on the development of thin, flexible displays – keeping their fingers crossed that a roll-up TV is on the cards sometime down the road. This is a task that NHK has been working on for several years now, and their latest prototype of the flexible OLED screen will be paraded at an open-day event at its R&D center in Tokyo this week, with reporters getting first dibs in a preview earlier. What makes the prototype of today different from the one which was displayed a couple of years ago would be the inclusion of a more reliable manufacturing process. Basically, the new screen will feature much less defects and bad pixels compared to the 2009 prototype. Measuring 5″ across diagonally at QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) resolution, the images can be seen in color, although the stronger green pixels tend to deliver an overall green hue. With the imperfections in place, it will still be some time before flexible video screens are ready to be commercialized for the masses. One of the biggest challenges? To reliably fabricate the pixels and electrical connections in order for them to remain unbroken even when the display is flexed.